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Your online views: Dec. 4, 2017

Florida Today
Published 1:53 p.m. ET Dec. 4, 2017

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Former Superintendent Brian Binggeli is pictured at his final Brevard School Board meeting. Binggeli resigned abruptly from the Plano, Texas, school district on Nov. 28, after assuming the position in 2015.(Photo: Jessica Saggio, FLORIDA TODAY)Buy Photo

Larry Mack: Training is not getting a concealed carry permit; anyone can apply for those. Training is getting on a range with qualified instructors and honing your skills.

Jeff Varnadoe: You have a responsibility to defend yourself before you ask someone else to defend your person. Get trained, get armed.

Bill Dickgraber: Bullets are unforgiving. The only ones in a church with a firearm should be trained security. But leave your firearm in the car, where it can be retrieved, not at home. I like his advice to immediately "bum-rush" an active shooter instead of huddling helplessly down behind church pews and whining like sacrificial sheep or piling up in a human heap at the door.

Britni Herndon: So those elderly ladies in the audience should "bum-rush" an active shooter? Bum-rushing an active shooter would take multiple people getting that same idea in the same exact moment. Most people are only worried about themselves and family members in those situations. The objective to the majority of people is to survive. I know I wouldn't sacrifice my life for anyone but my son.

Angela Barden: I would say guns are never the answer to any problem.

Daniel Kerr: I have rushed a gunman and survived being shot and taking him down and would do it again

Former Brevard superintendent resigns abruptly from Texas school district

(By Caroline Glenn, Nov. 29)

Missy Neal: The half-cent sales tax passed because of the people, not Binggeli. His constant threats to close schools killed it in previous years. People were, rightly, concerned about his oversight of funds. $50,000 settlement for a multimillion dollar contract? Somebody signed a terrible contract.

Scott Ellis: The payout for a three-year contract is just stunning. Looks like Plano needs an additional sales tax, too.

Vida Kristina Penikas: Yes. He should stay away from all school districts.

Lewis Ruffalo: He was just one of the rats to jump ship in Brevard before the EDR mess really hit the fan. Judy Preston and Debra Pace are the other two main culprits who will never face consequences for their malfeasance after fleeing the disaster they created.

Opinion: Florida Legislature has gone preemption crazy

(By Michael Alfano , guest columnist, Nov. 28)

Robin Turner: The war on property rights continues. When someone fights back he is subject to ridicule.

Tom Mars: I have a deal with my local municipality. I pay my property taxes on time, and then I get to trim/cut my own trees on my own private property whenever I want to. It seems to have worked out pretty well so far (as it has since the founding).

Citrus growers turn to Congress for help after administration request leaves them out

(By Ledyard King, Nov. 29)

Michael Hall: I don't understand why there wouldn't be insurance policies available from private insurance companies with better terms at a higher cost. If so, would the reason that growers didn't feel the need to pay the higher cost be that in the past, the government has always delivered for them?

Matt Fleming: Between free inmate labor, huge agricultural tax breaks from the state, infrastructure projects and federal price subsidies, how much more help are they looking for? Don’t they carry insurance? And isn’t orange juice one of the most profitable products out there?

Robert Newell: How about you cover the loss to your own business? I don't remember getting a check when you had a profitable year. Why do I as a taxpayer have to pay when you have a bad year?

Cliff Steenhoff: Why didn’t they buy crop insurance? Probably because it’s too expensive. But I believe Congress should bail them out. With a provision the land must be used for only agriculture purposes for 50 years to keep it out of the hands of developers.

Pam LaSalle: Local ordinances require citizens keep control of their pets through confinement laws, which in almost all cases would prevent death by coyote, which usually focus on easier to catch rodents for their diets. I can see how citizens may be confused about the law since government and elected officials in Brevard also promote stray domestic cats in outdoor feral cat colonies, which allows for the extensive hunting, maiming and killing indiscriminately of any and all wildlife. Any animal population may be controlled by eliminating its food source and if there is unnatural subsidized feeding of predators there can be an imbalance in nature full of unintended consequences.

Katie Shepard: Easy solution, don't leave your pets outside alone.

Kenneth W. McDonald: I speak on behalf of all former and current residents of the other 47 states where coyotes are as common as squirrels: Get a grip, people; coyotes are nothing. They thrive in downtown NYC and Chicago, for crying out loud — and people there still have pets and very few of them get hurt by coyotes (who'd rather raid garbage and roadkill than tussle with a terrier). At my home in Tennessee they'd sneak into the yard and steal a bite from my dog's food dish. They got along fine with my dog.